The Atlanta Falcons have asked their troubled quarterback Michael Vick to return more than $16 million in bonus money in a case that will be argued in a hearing Thursday, according to sources with knowledge of the case.

The Falcons contend that Vick should return the money because his recent guilty plea to federal dogfighting charges puts him in violation of the 10-year, $130 million contract he signed in December 2004.
But the NFL Players Association will argue in the hearing before the NFL's special master, University of Pennsylvania Law School professor Stephen Burbank, that Vick has already earned the bonus money, which was in the form of roster bonuses, and that under the current collective bargaining agreement reached in March a team cannot retrieve money already earned.